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Yet it does. This and other DVR communities working with esata's have found that some enclosures work and some dont.

I would expect fewer problems with pure esata enclosures, but combo usb/esata ones have a little more potential for complexity.

Just hasn't been a problem in my experience. That's what I go by, I've had a Vantec Nexstar 3 enclosure hooked to mine for over a year and I just hooked up a COOLMAX HD-380BR without any problems. Both are eSATA and USB.

------------------------------------------------------------------------I read a report that said the typical symptoms of stress were eating too much, drinking too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Who are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day.

Directv 3/1998-9/2011 now with Verizon FIOS and loving the faster DVR and being able to use both the external & internal drives at the same time

I reset the receiver by pulling the power cord. The receiver goes through the startup test but does not detect the drive. The drive is spinning. I put my ear on the case and turned it off. After the fan coasts down (a rougher rotational sound due to the magnets in the fan motor) I can hear the drive spinning down.

The WD drive is fresh out of the box, i.e. not formatted. I was thinking about hooking it up to a PC USB to see if it works, but I don't think the PC will see it since it isn't formatted. Can you format an unformatted drive via USB or do I have to hook it up SATA to the PC?

OK, I hooked it up USB and stumbled through the process using Storage Manager. It now works USB to my PC but the HR20 still doens't see it. I guess I've got a new backup drive.....

I see no use in using large external drives, if DirecTv doesn't change the FW to allow the drives to be switched to a different receiver. Your rolling the dice hoping you Chinese/Mexican receiver doesn't go belly up Oops there goes 500hrs of savers lost.

I see no use in using large external drives, if DirecTv doesn't change the FW to allow the drives to be switched to a different receiver. Your rolling the dice hoping you Chinese/Mexican receiver doesn't go belly up Oops there goes 500hrs of savers lost.

So how is that worse than relying on the standard internal drive if the unit goes belly up, other than the amount of lost recordings.

I would run out of space all the time with the internal drive. I'm happy to take the risk because the benefits outweigh it may times over.

Perhaps you're not aware Dish solution: external USB UNLIMITED storage, you can use many different disks ( one at the time ) and move the disks between same type of DVRs - one group is 622/722/722k(?) and other - 211/411. If your DVR will die, you can continue use all the disks with new one.

Perhaps you're not aware Dish solution: external USB UNLIMITED storage, you can use many different disks ( one at the time ) and move the disks between same type of DVRs - one group is 622/722/722k(?) and other - 211/411. If your DVR will die, you can continue use all the disks with new one.

Since I'm looking at building a video library system that will last, DirecTv better get their finger out or I'll be a Dish customer. Would not take much to change the FW, like don't check for receiver's serial number when the drive is mounted. If they want to check on something let them check Customer Account Number. Just plan dumb FW. If you can send your recording to any PC on your network with DIRECTV2PC what are they trying to protect by checking the boxes ID?

It appears that periodically restarting the HR via the menu improves this.Not sure why. I believe its clearing the cache of recent activity.For all I know, it might be cleaning up the db in other ways.Again, I'm not exactly sure about this, but it appears to help.I do it every couple days. (FWIW)

I used this setup since last Aug 2008. It was plug and play with no problems. It recently started acting very sluggish in responces, so I figured it was going down the tubes. I had it up to about 75% capacity before problems started...including freeze ups, stuttering video, slow responce times to FF and playlist (very annoying). Rebooting does help for a while as you stated. I have also noticed the power light going off several times on the drive and had to turn off the Apricorn drive and reboot both ext. HDD and HR to resume normal function.

Whats good....It was easy to set up. No problems with setup.It is very quiet, in fact there is no noise at all from it. It is very cool. Cold almost while running.

What is not...Is the drive failing? will update laterI have deleted programming to 40% and it seem to help normal function as long as I reboot the HR every so often (about once a week)After reading some of the above comments I would agree that an update to the HR may have caused the problems.

I am currently searching for a replacement external drive and have purchased a FAP-X 1.5 TB and have had no success getting it to be recognized yet. I am unable to get the HDD to remain "0n" before booting the HR, as some other have had a similar problem I hope to solve this,

I used this setup since last Aug 2008. It was plug and play with no problems. It recently started acting very sluggish in responces, so I figured it was going down the tubes. I had it up to about 75% capacity before problems started...including freeze ups, stuttering video, slow responce times to FF and playlist (very annoying). Rebooting does help for a while as you stated. I have also noticed the power light going off several times on the drive and had to turn off the Apricorn drive and reboot both ext. HDD and HR to resume normal function.

Whats good....It was easy to set up. No problems with setup.It is very quiet, in fact there is no noise at all from it. It is very cool. Cold almost while running.

What is not...Is the drive failing? will update laterI have deleted programming to 40% and it seem to help normal function as long as I reboot the HR every so often (about once a week)After reading some of the above comments I would agree that an update to the HR may have caused the problems.

I am currently searching for a replacement external drive and have purchased a FAP-X 1.5 TB and have had no success getting it to be recognized yet. I am unable to get the HDD to remain "0n" before booting the HR, as some other have had a similar problem I hope to solve this,

The Antec MX-1 seems to work with all receivers. It works on my Hr22 with 1TB drive.

1. Is $107 a good price on amazon for the 1TB calvary?
2. I have the first gen HR20 (silver) it should work okay?
3. Can I still record from my dual tuners?
4. Do I lose any of the functionality of the DVR when using the external?

1. Is $107 a good price on amazon for the 1TB calvary?2. I have the first gen HR20 (silver) it should work okay?3. Can I still record from my dual tuners?4. Do I lose any of the functionality of the DVR when using the external?

1. yes2. yes3. yes4. No, but you won't have access to anything on the internal and will have to redo your settings, subscriptions, etc.

I used this setup since last Aug 2008. It was plug and play with no problems. It recently started acting very sluggish in responces, so I figured it was going down the tubes. I had it up to about 75% capacity before problems started...including freeze ups, stuttering video, slow responce times to FF and playlist (very annoying). Rebooting does help for a while as you stated. I have also noticed the power light going off several times on the drive and had to turn off the Apricorn drive and reboot both ext. HDD and HR to resume normal function.

Whats good....It was easy to set up. No problems with setup.It is very quiet, in fact there is no noise at all from it. It is very cool. Cold almost while running.

What is not...Is the drive failing? will update laterI have deleted programming to 40% and it seem to help normal function as long as I reboot the HR every so often (about once a week)After reading some of the above comments I would agree that an update to the HR may have caused the problems.

I am currently searching for a replacement external drive and have purchased a FAP-X 1.5 TB and have had no success getting it to be recognized yet. I am unable to get the HDD to remain "0n" before booting the HR, as some other have had a similar problem I hope to solve this,

What model HR is that? I have two Xtremes and they work perfectly with a 20-700. The eSATA might well not stay "on" during the hook up process. The FAPs usually did not come "on" until the HR recognized the eSATA. Since Seagate makes both products...

I will be testing with this configuration in a couple of days, awaiting the drives)Purposed external case $29.88http://cooldrives.st...bayesouca8.html(2)Serial ATA Drive Drawer good pricehttp://www.startech....ive-Drawer.aspx(2)HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEMhttp://www.newegg.co...N82E16822145233This is not a Raid system 1 drive might get connected to my HTPC dual purpose system*** Update ***Everything arrived on 2 April 2009It took me about 1 hr to assemble all the bits and piecesUnplugged the HR22, Plugged in SATA cable and fired up the drives.(only using 1 drive at a time not a raid system)Plugged in HR22 when it came up WOW a new SATA drive appeared.I can't believe it came up on the first try.Swapping drives is a breezeTesting scheduled recording and VOD worked fineIf your going to have lots of external drives this is the way to go much more reasonably priced then single enclosures setupApproximate cost to install first 2 1tb drives $200 additional drives price of drive plus + $11 for removable HDD rack

Built my Antec MX-1 and hooked it up. It's different, but still doesn't work. I got the Antec MX-1 and a WD1001FALS. With this combo plugged in, the HR-20 gets part way through the startup sequence, shuts down and starts over. The screen sequence is:

I never see anything about a new drive and formatting. The HD is spinning and it is hooked up with the e-SATA cable. I have flipped the e-SATA cable. I've been using the one that came with my other enclosure.

Switched to the e-SATA cable that came with the Antec. On the first pass, the system goes through the boot sequence as normal, but when it comes up, I see my recorded shows and play list from the internal drive. On subsequent re-boots, sometimes it gets to the "Almost there...." screen and then shuts down and re-starts, sometimes it goes all the way through.

For my reset, I'm unplugging the power cable from the HR-20, starting up the Antec/WD, and then plugging in the power cable to the HR-20.

Do I have to partition the HD first? I read here that I don't have to format it, but what about a partition? Any ideas?

I can not believe I wasted an entire day on this... for me it worked perfectly on my HR22 with a western digital my book home edition 1 tb external hard drive connected with dynex esata cable.

now why the heck can't any of you post something that simple so people like me don't waste their entire day reading through all the nonsense? I work 75 hours a week. My one off day is Sunday. this entire day was wasted and now I have to go to bed so I can work in the morning...

thanks for nothing, to everyone but the one guy said his wd my book home edition hdd worked. which I read 6 hours ago...

I can not believe I wasted an entire day on this... for me it worked perfectly on my HR22 with a western digital my book home edition 1 tb external hard drive connected with dynex esata cable.

now why the heck can't any of you post something that simple so people like me don't waste their entire day reading through all the nonsense? I work 75 hours a week. My one off day is Sunday. this entire day was wasted and now I have to go to bed so I can work in the morning...

thanks for nothing, to everyone but the one guy said his wd my book home edition hdd worked. which I read 6 hours ago...

It's a shame you consider that you "wasted" your day in our forum, where we have many fine folks here who can quickly answer questions if only they are asked. I saw your other post in the Working eSATA Setup thread, very much like the one above, but I didn't see any questions from you, just your complaint that we didn't help you. Did I overlook the request for help?